by JBG » Wed Apr 14, 2004 12:28 pm
I agree: I wager that very few people here have seen Cisse play regularly.
My two cents:
Sell: Dudek, Riise, Traore, Biscan, Henchoz, Murphy, Cheyrou, Diao, Diouff, Heskey, Vignal, Mellor and Didi Hamman. Unfortunately only two or three of these players are marketable and we'll probably have to stick with the rest.
Buy: an experienced reserve keeper as back up for Kirkland, a decent centre half (maybe Gallas as he'll probably be available for £7 to £8million in the summer if Chelsea buy a few new centre halves), Malbranque (proven in the Premiership), a creative midfielder to replace Hamman (I like Rosicky a lot), another backup creative midfielder (I like Juninho of Lyon), a decent centre forward (maybe Cisse, maybe Kezman) and if I had much money left I would buy two new full backs as I simply think Steve Finnan always has been and still is vastly over rated.
I have lost a lot of faith in 90% of Liverpool's players and I think some of those players whose praises are sung by Liverpool fans are over rated.
I mean, some people describe Milan Baros as "sheer class" whereas the reality is, in my opinion, that while he has potential he still has only managed a dozen or so goals for the club, and as things stand he would be a decent forward for Birmingham but he's not quite in the top bracket yet.
Also, I hear a lot of nonsense from Pool fans about Harry Kewell being a world class player "who would walk onto anyside in the world". Thats absolute nonsense. Kewell approached world class three years ago, since then he has been in relative decline and while he can be good on his day, he's no where near the level of the likes of Pires and I would say his form this year is probably below that of Zenden's of Boro.
People also sing the praises of Le Tallec and Pongolle. Both look like good prospects, but neither have made the impact Fowler, McMannaman, Gerrard and Owen made at their ages.
The logic in selling Hamman is that while he is a superb player we are simply too negative with him and Gerrard in the team and I think we won't move forward until we have a creative midfielder alongside Gerrard, ala Petit and Vieria in 1998, Scholes and Keane or Edu and Vieria now.
Jolly Bob Grumbine.